The Potter's Wheel

Valentine Roux (1) , Daniela Corbetta (2)

1 PréTech - Préhistoire et Technologie
2 Department of psychology

The book comprises two ethnoarchaeological studies whose aim is the construction of a reference knowledge for interpreting archaeological data, according to the principles of verification against empirical data. The first study deals with the concept of craft specialization. This is a commonly encountered concept since it describes the emergence of complex societies. The question is to find material critria significant of pottery specialization that are receivable from an epistemological point of view. With this purpose in mind, the authors conducted a study on apprenticeship in wheel throwing technique. Perceptual motor tests, potters' gestures and experimental products are studied. They show that the apprenticeship in throwing technique is necessarily long and difficult taking into account the motor activities which have to be developed. Based on this, the authors propose to associate the material fact "throwing technique" to the attribute "craft specialization". The second study is the construction of a techno-morphological taxonomy to evaluate the throwing difficulties of pre- and protohistoric ceramic vessels. The techno-morphological taxonomy is constructed on the basis of Indian potter's classification and explanations. The validity of the oral data is assessed by analysing an experimental production in terms of measures, manufacturing time, and thinning and shaping gestures. Then, the transcultural value of the taxinomy is discussed on the basis of an investigation with French potters.

Mots clés: Wheel; craft specialisation; ethnoarchaeology

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Valentine Roux, Daniela Corbetta. The Potter's Wheel: Craft Specialization and Technical Competence. Oxford & IBH Publishing, pp.145, 1989. ⟨hal-00439770⟩